Dhariss
World: 'Dhariss *'Location: 'Subsector Adamantis *'Type: 'Forbidden World *'Tithe: 'Nix *'Population: 'Unknown *'Government: 'Unknown, if any. 'Description Once a thriving civilised world of several billion, the world of Dhariss is a textbook example of the terrible consqeuences of Heresy. In approximately 100.M41, a powerful Sorcerer named Mathus the Accused rose to prominence heading a cult of several thousand fanatical devotees, compelled or willing it was never discovered. Attempts to eliminate the Sorcerer by the Inquisition were a failure, and Mathus began openly preaching Heresy and praising the Chaos Gods. Soon after, large swathes of the thought-loyal PDF defected to the Sorcerer's whims and the planet erupted into a civil war of scope predicted by not even the most pessimistic of Inquisitors. In a matter of weeks a billion-strong army of Chaos Cultists tore across the planet, slaughtering all in their wake and summoning hordes of daemons into the material realm. The infestation rapidly attained irreversible status, and all Imperial forces on their way to reclaim the planet were turned back. Mathus meanwhile planned a mass sacrifice of unprecedented scale, great enough to tear the entire planet into the paradise of the warp. Unbenknowst to the Sorcerer however, the leaders of the loyalist remnants had learned that no reinforcements would arive and their fate was already sealed. Determined and resolute, they commanded the detonation of every plasma reactor, geothermal station and explosive device they had at their disposal. An entire hemisphere of the planet was seared in an instant, and Mathus' hopes of sacrificing the remaining loyalists for his own gain were shattered. In an ill-advised and desperate gambit, the Sorcerer claimed the lost souls as his own sacrifices and pledged them to the Chaos Gods. It is not exactly known what occurred next, though some among the Ordo Malleus believe a disagreement among the Chaos Gods themselves was responsible. Whatever the cause, the result of Mathus' falsely claimed sacrifice was terrible. Dhariss was dragged to the warp, but only halfway. Dhariss now exists as a cursed world, too far in realspace to house daemons, but too far into the warp for it's cursed inhabitants to have anything that could be considered a life. The populace now exists as sickening, disembodied spirits, wandering the surface for all eternity in mangled, fleshy constructs that grow, decay and shift constantly as the barriers between realspace and the warp fluctuate around them. Anyone who steps foot on this planet risks suffering the same fate if they fail to keep their wits about them and are caught in swirling warp fluctuations. The only way to assure safety from these warp pulses is to be accompanied by a psyker, whose mental fortitude can maintain a more stable bubble of realspace around them. Blanks are even more effective at this duty, but their exceptional rarity limits their use. What few reports exist from those agents of the Inquisition brave or foolish enough to investigate the aftermath reported that any semblence of even cultist society had broken down. The mutated population attack anything in sight except each other, which suggests some kind of (at least bestial) instinct, but no communication beyond constant and soul-tearing wails were observed. Of the dozen Inquisitorial psykers sent to the planet 3 were killed, 5 returned utterly insane, and the remaining 4 had increased in psychic power by a great amount. After decades of extremely thorough probing and testing, unholy influence was ruled out as a cause of the meteoric rise in ability, with the true cause remaining unknown but obviously related to being so close to the warp for so long whilst not truly exiting realspace. The only people in the centuries since who have visited Dhariss are heretics or extremely radical Inquisitors seeking to enhance their psychic powers, and foolhardy explorers trying to loot the ancient treasures of the Great Library of Dhariss. As well as countless tomes full of ancient (and some may say heretical) knowledge, the Library is home to dozens of great vaults filled with Archeotech relics that were discovered by the Imperial Army as they swept through Adamantis in the Great Crusade, and almost all attempts to recover any of these incredibly valuable treasures have failed. The ultimate fate of Mathus the Accused is not known. *'Technology:' Unknown, if any. *'Military:' Unknown, if any. *'Strategic importance: 'Nix Official Status: Avoid at all Costs *'Loyalty:' Unknown. The population's ability to comprehend motivations such as loyalty is suspect. Category:Planet Category:Subsector Adamantis Category:Forbidden World